Dana Air resumes flights amidst anxiety

DANA Air resumed scheduled domestic flight operations with Lagos-Abuja service over the weekend amidst anxiety by scores of air passengers who expressed worries about flying with the airline.

Investigation by The Nation revealed that some passengers who were expected to fly with the airline earlier on Friday morning developed cold feet midway and subsequently missed their flight.

The airline, it would be recalled, went off the skies on June 3, 2012, when the aviation ministry via the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) suspended its Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) following the crash of one of its MD 83 jets in Iju Ishaga area of Lagos that killed 163 people and destroyed property worth billions of naira.

Since then, the airline had battled for its return into operation and on December 5, 2012, the NCAA issued new AOC to the airline after it satisfactorily scaled the safety audit.

But the regulatory agency, NCAA, told the airline management in clear terms that it would not be allowed to fly until it begins to pay the outstanding 70 per cent of the $100,000 to families of victims of the crash as stipulated by law.

Having also showed sufficient evidence of this, the NCAA gave the airline the all clear nod to commence scheduled operations.

Commenting on the development, Mr. Sam Adurogboye, NCAA’s spokesman, said, it was only natural to have apathy on the part of passengers on Dana’s first inaugural flight after it recertification.

“Naturally, the interest will build. Their absence led to a lot of traffic at the airport. Before the crash Dana was one of the most sought-after airlines and I believe they were customer-friendly. People have phobia for flight anywhere in the world but it is still the safest means of transport when compared to other means available,” he said.

Justifying the need for the flight resumption, Adurogboye said: “Dana Air passed through the entire five phase of recertification in order to obtain their AOC. They flew their aircrafts empty to several routes with some inspectors onboard for 50 hours just to certify their airworthiness. So from the point of view of safety, everything has been taken care of from our end. We believe that everything would return to normal for the airline. Passengers don’t need to express any fears.”

Speaking exclusively to The Nation at the weekend, the spokesman of Dana Group, Tony Usidamen, confirmed that the airline resumed operations with a Lagos-Abuja-Lagos flight today, after which it would gradually introduce other routes it hitherto flew to.

“As expected, it’s gradual. We expect that it will take a while before the flying public become aware of our operations. We don’t expect immediate returns. But there has been no feeling of anxiety on the part of the passengers. The airline which is a 140-seater took on board 67 passengers to Lagos in its inaugural flight from Lagos to Abuja and came back with 82 passengers. We consider this very encouraging. We are trying to build the confidence of the passengers all over again.”

I dont share your sentiments one bit. What is the problem if the airline was able to get their through Nigeria’s corridors of power and ultimately secure the unconditional release of their AOC? I dnt see any issue with that. In case you dnt know that is what they call long leg in Nigeria’s parlance, chikena!